'Economic issues do not matter during elections; it is the emotional connect that helps swing votes.'
Many eyebrows were raised in Bihar on Monday as news broke of a meeting between Communist Party of India's rising star Kanhaiya Kumar and Ashok Choudhary, a minister and key aide of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.
EC officials said the counting of votes for the Lok Sabha elections will begin at 8 am on Thursday and results are expected only by late evening.
The future challenger to Narendra Modi would be somebody who can bring the Hindus and Muslims together again. The Hindus as Hindus, not broken caste groups, asserts Shekhar Gupta.
Investors may increase exposure to mid and small-cap stocks as their risk-reward profile is more attractive currently, suggest Nitin Singh and Vinay Joseph.
His likable boy-next-door face and casual approach to public speaking have a unique appeal for the younger generation, but it stops there, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
The DMK has Stalin and Stalin alone as the key campaigner. The rest of them all, including half-sister Kanimozhi, are tied down to their own constituencies while those like party treasurer and former minister S Duraimurugan, to those of their children's constituencies.
'The honourable prime minister virtually handpicked me for the Amritsar East seat.' 'Amit Shahji announced that if I am elected, the whole of Punjab will be drugs free.'
Modi's decision to bring Shah in his cabinet signals that he will now play a crucial role in the government.
The Reserve Bank on Monday pitched for creation of a conducive environment for investment and faster clearances of projects to boost economic growth which slowed to a decade low of 5 per cent in the previous fiscal.
Singh was widely regarded as an expert in the rural and agricultural landscape of the country and is credited with the conceptualisation and implementation of the NREGA (National Rural Guarantee Employment) Act.
It is likely that the party's allies in Tamil Nadu and West Bengal, two of the five states going to the polls in April-May, might insist on allocating fewer seats than they did in 2016, reports Archis Mohan.
The broader NSE Nifty closed 1.25 points, or 0.01 per cent down at 10,564.05.
An interplay of Modi government's outreach in Bihar and the sequence of events in Chirag Paswan's life could make Bihar a game of musical chairs when the results are out.
There seems to be no "closure" for B S Yediyurappa, the Bharatiya Janata Party's "comeback man" in Karnataka, as he could never complete a full term in office, despite becoming the chief minister four times, surmounting odds. It's also too early to write a political obituary of the 78-year old Lingayat strongman and the 24X7 politician, the face of the party in the state for decades.
It was a many splendoured political career, which ended at the presidential palace. But the prime minister's post eluded him, even though it was a position he openly aspired for.
From devising a seat-sharing formula for the National Democratic Alliance in Bihar for the 2019 Lok Sabha election to wooing young voters, the former poll strategist has ensured his position as number 2 within the party.
Barring Maharashtra, the poll percentage in rest of the states was in excess of 60 per cent while in Puducherry it was 80.47 per cent.
The victories with huge margins came as a Diwali gift and a shot in the arm for the nearly six-month-old alliance ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls after facing frequent questions about its longevity.
The broader NSE Nifty slipped below the 10,500-mark by falling 103 points, or 0.97 per cent, at 10,482.20. It touched a high of 10,645.50 and a low of 10,464.05 during the day.
The Karnataka verdict was something that even the Bharatiya Janata Party did not expect. Through the campaign when the leaders in the BJP were asked what they expected in Karnataka they said, "for the public we say 18, but realistically we are expecting anything between 10 and 12."
Trade between India and Indonesia stands at $20 billion.
Since much of the voting was on religious lines, Mamata's rural focus became irrelevant.
Stellar rally in ITC shares along with strength in the Asian equities capped the downside.
While Arun Jaitley remains part of the decision making process, Piyush Goyal, who was given additional charge on May 14, attends cabinet meetings and takes the day-to-day decisions.
'We will certainly perform and take India to newer heights. We will really like to see India become a world power in every sense of the term and build a strong and robust economy that is capable of employment generation on a scale required for a country like India,' BJP ideologue Vinay Sahasrabuddhe tells Prasanna D Zore/Rediff.com
The BJP accused the Congress leader of playing politics in the matter.
'The 16th and 17th Lok Sabha and the 2017 assembly election show that Dalits and OBCs are moving towards the BJP.'
Rahul said his party's soon-to-be released manifesto will reflect the people's voice and not just one man's view.
Breaking with past practice, the Congress on Thursday released its first list of 24 candidates for the Delhi assembly polls repeating all its eight members of Legislative Assembly and 12 others who were runner-ups in the 2013 assembly election in which the party had suffered a setback.
Salil Dhawan shares his stock market wisdom as 2017 is all set to ring out.
Kiran Bedi tells Amberish K Diwanji reasons for her optimism about change in the political sysatem.
Till date, 107 elections to states and three parliamentary polls have been smoothly conducted using the EVMs.
'Hindu voters in coastal Karnataka lean more towards Hindutva than Hinduism which explains why the Siddaramaiah government's perception as anti-Hindu worked wonders for the BJP in coastal Karnataka.'
The government's initial promise and energy seems to have dissipated.
'Narendra Modi is single-handedly changing the formula to win elections. With money, human resources, mobile technology, the Internet, advance planning and tremendous confidence, he has spread his image more in UP villages than in urban areas.' Rediff.com's Sheela Bhatt reports from Lucknow on how Team Modi is changing the rules of the election game.
'Overlying his idealism was a hatred of war and of all things military. He gave no deep thought to politico-military matters and this prevented him from making sound security decisions.'
Narendra Modi's victory does not represent a victory of 'the Indian nation', but only an elite-driven polarising phenomenon. The sooner we -- and the BJP -- recognise this, the better, says Praful Bidwai.
The opinion polls give the edge to the AAP over the BJP and Congress
Disappointed and angry Congress members are likely to train their guns on Rahul Gandhi's team of advisors for inept handling of the 2014 Lok Sabha poll campaign, says Rediff.com contributor Anita Katyal
